YEREVAN. – The national debt of Armenia continues to grow steadily, according to Haykakan Zhamanak newspaper.
“As of April 1 of this year, the debt already amounted to 5 billion 196 million [US] dollars. In fact, our national debt increased by 576 million dollars within a year; this exceeds last year’s indicator by 12.4 percent.
“[But] our national budget revenues have reduced during this same time. In case when the state budget revenues amounted to 517 million dollars in the first quarter of last year, this year—500 million dollars.
“In one word, we have a 12.5-percent growth in national debt and a 3.2-percent drop in budget revenues, and this shows that Armenia subsists on the account of debts.
“And the fact that, along with the growth of debts, the state revenues not only do not grow adequately but continue to decrease, shows that Armenia is moving towards bankruptcy.
“There are forecasts that our national debt will approach the 6-billion dollar threshold by the end of this year,” Haykakan Zhamanak wrote.